Stacking arrangement for pieces of sheet material



Dec. 16, 1969 o. c. VON ARLAND ETAL 3,484,102

STACKING ARRANGEMENT FOR PIECES OF SHEET MATERIAL Filed Nov. 6, 1967 2Sheets-Sheet 1 lNVE/VTOPS arfa C257? MEN) VON ARLAND HEINR/CH USP/ALPSTEFAN 5/7!- B Lou a! 5 mm- Age/2f;

Dec.- 16, 1969 o. c. vou ARLAND ETAL 3,484,102 STACKING ARRANGEMENT FORPIECES OF SHEET MATERIAL Filed Nov. 6, 1987 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 23 La La 1s -H/NRICH as WALD ST FAN E/TL y 4 Ema A en 7:

0770 CZEPVENY VPN AQLA/VD United States Patent 3 484,102 STACKINGARRANGEMENT FOR PIECES OF SHEET MATERIAL Otto Czerweny von Arland,Harthauser Strasse, 8 Munich 9, Germany, and Heinrich Oswald, Otterfing,and Stefan Eitl, Koetzting, Germany; said Oswald and said Eitl assignorsto said von Arland Filed Nov. 6. 1967, Ser. No. 680,724 Int. Cl. B6529/58, 31/36 US. Cl. 27187 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Astacking arrangement for cardboard pieces sliced from a strip by rotaryknives has feeding arms which periodically feed the strip to the knivesand the sliced pieces to chutes. The bottom Wall of each chute isstepped and has a downwardly offset portion near a gate normally closingthe lower end of the chute. The gate is opened by a control mechanismduring the interval between successive feeding steps to release one ormore retained pieces and thereby to form a stack in a receptacle underthe chute. While the receptacle is being emptied, a manual controloverriding the mechanism keeps the gate closed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the stacking ofpieces of sheet material and will be described hereinafter withreference to a stacking arrangement for pieces of cardboard sliced froma strip of the material during the manufacture of book matches.

Cardboard pieces readily form a stack in a receptacle when they aresequentially released from a chute against a wall of the receptacle. Thereceptacle has to be emptied or replaced from time to time, and it isnecessary to interrupt the flow of the pieces from the chute while thereceptacle is not available. If a continuous operation preceding thestacking is not to be interrupted, it is necessary to provide anintermediate container for temporarily retaining the pieces suppliedduring the interval. The known retaining arrangements are relativelycomplex and do not always precisely stack the pieces collected in theintermediate container.

The object of the invention is the provision of an improved, yet verysimple stacking arrangement of the type described.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The improvement in the stacking arrangementresides mainly in an inclined chute and associated elements, the chutebeing fed with pieces of sheet material at its upper end by a feedingmechanism which is operated intermittently by a drive, and sequentiallydischarging the pieces to a receptacle suitably positioned so that thepieces discharged from the lower chute end form a stack in thereceptacle.

The chute of this invention is provided with a gate at its lower endwhich retains the pieces of sheet material in the lower chute end whenclosed. The bottom wall of the chute, which slidably supports the piecesduring their downward movement from the feeding mechanism toward thereceptacle, has two consecutive portions which are respectivelycontiguously adjacent the gate and remote from the same, and are offsetso that the adjacent wall portion is located below the plane defined bythe more remote portion. A control mechanism is provided to open andclose the gate.

The control mechanism is preferably synchronized with the feedingmechanism in such a manner that the gate 3,484,102 Patented Dec. 16,1969 is closed during the feeding of pieces to the chute and opened inthe intervals between successive feeding steps. Manually operated meanspermit the control mechanism to be inactivated and the gate to be keptclosed as during removal of a previously formed stack from thereceptacle. A few pieces of sheet material can thereby be collected inthe lower end portion of the chute in preceisely superimposedrelationship if they are not longer in their direction of movement inthe chute than the bottom wall portion near the gate, and thesuperimposed sheets can be dropped over the small distance from the gateto the receptacle without disturbing their alignment.

Other features, additional objects, and many of the attendant advantagesof this invention will readily be appreciated from the followingdetailed description of a preferred embodiment when considered inconnection with the attached drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the drawing:

FIG. 1 shows a stacking arrangement of the invention and associatedelements of a book match making machine in side elevational section onthe line II in FIG. 3

FIG. 2 shows a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1 in top plan view;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational, and partly sectional view of theapparatus of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 shows a detail of FIG. 3 on a larger scale.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing indetail, and initially to FIG. 1, there is seen the stationary frame 40of the illustrated apparatus which supports a horizontal drive shaft 41.A motor, not shown, turns the shaft 41 clockwise, as viewed in FIG. 1,and also rotates two cooperating cutters comprising coaxial, axiallyspaced, circular blades 2, 3. A slot in the frame 40 admits strips 4 ofcardboard to a horizontal, elongated table 39 which extends along therotary cutters and is aligned with the nips of the cutting blades 2, 3.Feeding arms 1a are movable in respective longitudinally spaced,transverse slots of the table 39 to move the strip 4 into the nip of thecutting blades 2, 3 as is better seen in FIG. 2.

Stationary sheet metal guides 5, 6, 7 lead from the rotary cutters totwo groups of obliquely inclined chutes 11, 12 which are directed towardcorresponding compartments of a receptacle 10 which is releasablyattached to the frame 40 in a conventional manner, not illustrated. Thechutes are arranged on two levels, the six chutes 11 of the upped levelalternating with the six chutes 12 of the lower level in the directionof the cutter axes, and the receptacle 10 is divided into twelvecompartments arranged in two rows to receive stacks of pieces 4a ofcardboard sliced from the strip 4 by the blades 2, 3, as is better seenin FIG. 3.

The bottom wall of each chute 11 has an upper portion 8 near the rotarycutters and a lower portion 13 parallel to the upper portion butdownwardly offset from the plane of the portion 8 so as to form a stepin chute 11. The bottom wall portion 13 extends to the lower end of thechute 11 which is normally closed by a gate 15. Each chute 12 similarlyhas two offset bottom wall portions 9, 14, and is normally closed in adownward direction by a gate 16 contiguously adjacent the wall portion14.

The feeding arms 1a and the gates 15, 16 are operated in timed sequenceby radial cams 1, 17 on the drive shaft 41. A cam follower 10 on eachfeeding arm 1a is held in engagement with the cam 1 by helical tensionspring 1b so that the arms In swing toward and away from the cutterblades 2, 3 once during each revolution of the shaft 41. The face of thecam 17 has a circularly arcuate major portion about the axis of theshaft 41, and a flat minor portion which extends along a chordsubtending the arc of the major portion.

A cam follower 18' on a rocker 18 is held in engagement with the cam 17by a spring 18". One end of the rocker 18 is pivotally attached to theframe 40, and its free end is connected to an arm 20 by a hinged link19. The arm 20 is movably mounted on a shaft 33 fastened to the frame 40and carries a pivotally attached abutment 21.

The shaft also carries a segment 22 which is biased toward theillustrated position by a tension spring 32. A radial extension 22 ofthe segment is connected by bars 23, 24 to radial arms 25, 26 on shafts27, 28. As is better seen in FIG. 3, the shafts 27, 28 extend along thetwo groups of chutes 11, 12, and carry the gates 15, 16. The segment 22has two radially offset arcuate face portions separated by a step 22"which may be engaged by the abutment 21 when the latter is pivotedclockwise on the arm 20 from the position shown in FIG. 1.

As is apparent from joint consideration of FIGS. 1 and 4, the abutment21 is linked by a hinged bar 31 to an operating lever 29 rotatablymounted on a shaft 30 and equipped with a handle 290. Two notches 34 onan arcuate face of the lever 29 may be engaged alternatively by a leafspring 35 on the frame 40 to secure the lever in either of two angularpositions. In the illustrated position, the lever, by means of the bar31 keeps the abutment 21 out of reach of the afore-described abutmentstep 22 on the segment 22. When the lever 29 is manually pivoted bymeans of the handle 29a until the spring 35 engages the other notch 34,the abutment 21 is aligned with the step 22".

The afore-described apparatus operates as follows:

While the cams 1, 17 are rotated continuously by the drive shaft 41 andone cardboard strip 4 is fed to the table 39 manually or automaticallyduring each revolution of the shaft 41, each strip is sliced into twelvepieces 4' by the blades 2, 3, and the smaller pieces of cardboard arepushed over the guides 5, 6, 7 into corresponding chutes 11, 12 andslide downward over the bottom walls of the chutes until they abutagainst th egates 15, 16. Because of the vertical spacing of the bottomwall portions 8, 13 in the chutes 11 and of the bottom wall portions 9,14 in the chutes 12, successively supplied pieces of cardboard aresuperimposed in precise alignment. This mode of operation continues aslong as the lever 29 is in the illustrated position. The closed gates15, 16 permit the previously formed stacks of cardboard pieces 4' to beremoved from the receptacle 10, or the receptacle to be released fromthe frame 40 in a manner not illustrated in detail, and replaced by anempty receptacle of the same shape.

The oscillations of the rocker 18 due to the rotation of the cam 17 aretransmitted to the arm 20 by the link 19, and the abutment 21 moves idlyback and forth in an are centered approximately in the shaft 20. Whenthe lever 29 is shifted by the handle 29a to its other angular positionin which it may be secured by the spring 35, the abutment 21 is swungtoward the shaft 20 so that it engages the step 22" and the gates 15, 16are opened against the biasing force of the spring 32 once during eachrevolution of the shaft 41 while the cam follower 18' engages the majorarcuate portion of the cam 17, and are closed by the spring 32 onlyduring the shorter interval during which the cam follower 18 travelsover the straight portion of the cam face. The angular setting of thecams 1 17 on the shaft 41 is such that the slicing operation iscompleted when the gates are closed so that each piece 4' of cardboardis stopped during its downward travel before being released to thereceptacle 10. Very precise positioning of the pieces in the receptacleis achieved by the low velocity of the piece 4' at its discharge from achute 11, 12.

Stacks of cardboard pieces are built up in the several compartments ofthe-receptacle 10 until the lever 29 is returned to the illustratedposition, thereby disengaging a coupling in the motion transmittingtrain between the cam 1 and the gates 15, 16 formed by the abutment 21and the step 22" as the input and output members respectively, andthereby inactivating the automatic gate opening and closing mechanism.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosurerelates only to a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that it isintended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of theinvention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure which do notconstitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention setforth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A stacking arrangement for pieces of sheet material including aninclined chute, feeding means for sequentially feeding pieces of sheetmaterial to the upper end of said chute, drive means for operating saidfeeding means, and supporting means for supporting a receptacle at thelower end of the chute in such a position that the pieces of sheetmaterial sequentially discharged by gravity from said lower end form astack in the receptacle, the improvement in the chute which comprises:

(a) gate means at said lower end adapted to be closed for retainingpieces of said sheet material in said chute at said lower end of thesame,

(1) said chute having an obliquely inclined bottom wall slidablysupporting said pieces during downward movement of the same from saidfeeding means toward said receptacle,

(2) respective consecutive portions of said bottom wall adjacent saidgate means and remote from said gate means being offset in such a mannerthat said adjacent portion is downwardly spaced from a plane defined bysaid remote portion; and

(b) control means for opening and closing said gate means.

2. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 1, said portions of saidbottom wall being elongated in a direction from said feeding meanstoward said receptacle, and said adjacent portion being contiguouslyadjacent said gate means.

3. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 1, said control meansincluding motion transmitting means connecting said gate means to saiddrive means for opening and closing of said gate means in timed sequencewith the feeding of said pieces to said upper end.

4. In an arrangemetn as set forth in claim 3, said motion transmittingmeans including means closing said gate means during the feeding of eachof said pieces to said upper end and opening said gate means in theinterval between the feeding of successive pieces of said sheetmaterial.

5. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 3, manually operated meansoverriding said control means for keeping said gate means closed duringoperation of said feeding means.

6. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 5, biasing means biasing saidgate means toward the closed position, said manually operated meansbeing effective for inactivating said control means.

7. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 5, said motion transmittingmeans including coupling means having input and output portionsrespectively connected to said drive means and to said gate means andengageable for movement of said gate means by said drive means, saidmanually operated means including means for engaging and disengagingsaid coupling means.

8. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 6, said manually operatedmeans including an operating member mounted for angular movement betweentwo angular positions spaced from each other, and linking meansconnecting said operating member to said coupling means for engaging thesame in one of said angular positions of said member, and fordisengaging the coupling means in the other angular position.

9. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 7, said drive means includinga cam member and means for continuously rotating said cam member, saidmotion transmitting means including a segment member mounted for angularmovement, and cam follower means engaging said cam member and connectedto said coupling means for reciprocating the input portion thereof, sadsegment member carrying the output portion of said coupling means, andsaid linking means including means for moving said input portion betweenan operative position in which said input portion engages said outputportion during said reciprocating movement thereof, and an inoperativeposition spaced from said output portion.

10. In an arrangement as set forth in claim 8, yieldably resilient meansfor securing said operating member in each of said two positionsthereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,088,604 5/1963 Nelsson 271--87RICHARD E. AEGERTER, Primary Examiner

